Unfortunately for Spirit, things started to turn rocky on March 13, 2006 when one of the rover's front wheels became immobilized. Being a front wheel, mission control simply turned Spirit around and drive it backwards for 3 years

fusillade762:Unfortunately for Spirit, things started to turn rocky on March 13, 2006 when one of the rover's front wheels became immobilized. Being a front wheel, mission control simply turned Spirit around and drive it backwards for 3 years

For some reason this makes me giggle like a crazy person.

I can sympathize with Spirit. I had a car with a bad transmission, so I drove around backward occasionally since it was just easier.

nekom:Awesome. Possibly the biggest NASA accomplishment in my life to date.

To be honest, when I think of the Apollo missions, I think, "That's the coolest thing NASA has ever done!"When I think of Voyager leaving the heliopause, I think, "That's the coolest thing NASA has ever done!"When I watch the ISS pass over head, I think, "That's the coolest thing NASA has ever done!"When I think of astronauts being in space continuously for over ten years, I think, "That's the coolest thing NASA has ever done!"When I watched my first and only shuttle launch in person, I thought, "That's the coolest thing NASA has ever done!"When I watched the MSL land on Mars, I thought, "That's the coolest thing NASA has ever done!"When I watched Morpheus tip over and explode...well, I pretty much laughed my arse off.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I have a really short attention span.

Loves me the space program in all its variety but I have one quibble with that NASA P.R. people and it's this line, used in every article I have read about Opportunity after it passed its 'six month' milestone:

FTFA: 'Not bad for a rover that was only expected to last 3 months.'Oh, puh-leeze, NASA.

This is utter bullshiat.

The NASA people aren't surprised it lasted longer than 3 months because they BUILD the damned thing.If they truly thought they could build something that would spend years in space getting to Mars, drop through the atmosphere, survive the landing and THEN only last three months, they wouldn't have been very good designers, engineers or builders.

So congrats NASA on Opportunity's successes.

Now STFU and stop sandbagging the public on how long you thought it would run.

TheMysteriousStranger:jaytkay: douchebag/hater: Now STFU and stop sandbagging the public on how long you thought it would run.

90 days was the worst best-case scenario. If they made it to 90 days they were satisfied with the return on investment.

Not quite. They also had to travel 600 meters for mission success. Opportunity has traveled over 35,000 meters.

Aye, and the one thing I'm looking most forward to as far as milestones is the day Opportunity takes the all time distance traveled by a rover. Which is currently held by the second Russian moon rover I believe. Granted, the Chinese may start roving around on the moon this year. We shall see. o.o